#NYC playwrights

[thebubblecafe]

Hey guys, so I'm directing an original short play, titled Spoon-Fed. It's a story of a noble house where gambling servants pull their master's heartstrings. (It also features a bisexual love triangle).

If you're in the NYC area, from the 18th-20th, I would love to have you all attend. We will also have a 1 night only digital premiere the 21st.

If you can't attend either in person or can't afford a virtual ticket I would highly highly appreciate you all sharing this.

You can purchase your tickets (only $10) HERE.

[megameryl]

Theater Talk 8/24/24

If you get to a point where your brain is accidentally swapping in Thornton Wilder for Oscar Wilde (or vice-versa)...it might be time to turn in your theatre card.

[naneki-maid]

I don’t know. I do know that I am in continuous need of the Spiritual and that I usually go to great lengths to avoid it. And I think I’m not alone in that. And I think a connection to the Spiritual is essential to us as individuals and to the world as a whole. I think our survival depends on it.

-The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (2005) by Stephen Adly Guirges

[theshatterednotes]

Edwin Arlington Robinson

[thisismynyc]

New York, New York

[writemarcus]

SIBLING RIVALRIES

Scott’s satirical dark comedy-drama "Sibling Rivalries" was workshopped and developed at Egg @ Spoon Theatre’s INCUBATION SERIES alongside Alex Lin’s "Bad Chinese Daughter.”

“Sibling Rivalries” explores legacy, the crab-bucket effect, the EDI craze, blackness as a monolith, the glory and horrors of black excellence, affirmative action and validation. Thank you to everyone at Egg & Spoon for taking a big swing at supporting this epic play, thank you to this magically melanated community of storytellers who bestowed your gifts and bore your souls, thank you audience for your rawness and delightful responses, thank you stage manager Robert Cott for your service and professionalism, and thank you Dev for steering the ship and making every moment count.

...

The INCUBATION SERIES provides developmental support for Global Majority writers’ full-length plays.

This program reflects our passion for developing new plays and our commitment to building a more equitable theatre ecology.

...

[joeystocks]

My photography: playwright Charles L. White photographed for The Dramatist. Copyright 2022 by Joey Stocks

[didtheykiss]

Mary Gets Hers at Playwrights Realm

Did they kiss?

No, no characters in the play kissed! Even though there was ~tension~ all over the place!

Should they have?

No, it was good that nobody kissed! First of all, Mary (Wong) is 12 and even though it is implied that she is kissing a lot of people, we don't have to see that to understand it and the ickiness of it! And while there was lite ~flirting~ between Abraham (Perkins) and the Soldier (Heath), and while Abraham and Ephraim (Chavez-Richmond) clearly share a deep bond, the monks have not enough self-awareness of their bodies to probably even understand that they'd want a kiss. And it probably adds to the ~tension~ that nobody kisses, which makes it all the more ticklish and gleeful.

The most intimate moment in the play was when Mary smelled the Soldier's head, as she did her to parents when they were alive. It was such a tender gesture that exemplified the kind of intimacy Mary longs for--one that gives a sense of belonging.

Mary Gets Hers written by Emma Horwitz directed by Josiah Davis produced by Playwrights' Realm, presented at MCC Theater starring Octavia Chavez-Richmond, Kai Heath, Susannah Perkins, Claire Siebers, Haley Wong Mary Gets Hers runs from September 11 – October 14, 2023. It runs 1hr and 30min.

[lenbryant]

Sad passing of a gay theatre pioneer. Wish I had an opportunity to meet him.

NYTimes: “(The Haunted Host) was so much before its time,” Mr. Fierstein said in a phone interview. “Here you have a play where the strange person, the bizarre person, the person who was the antagonist, was the heterosexual. The normal person, the one with real emotion and real love, was the gay character. We forget our history, and now we have people who want to erase our history. This is why Robert’s work is so important.”

(Times) For a while, Mr. Patrick was known, perhaps a bit hyperbolically, as the world’s most produced playwright, with his work performed at small theaters in Minneapolis, Toronto, Vienna, Brazil and New Zealand, often all at the same time. In 1978, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported, “Certain works, such as ‘Kennedy’s Children’ and ‘Camera Obscura,’ are quite probably being done somewhere every day of the year.”

In 2014, Henrik Eger of The Seattle Gay News asked Mr. Patrick if there was anything he hadn’t yet done but wished he had.

“True love,” he said. “And I would like to have the money to build or buy a theater in L.A. with enough ground space that I could call it Robert Patrick’s Free Parking Theater, because in L.A. the theater would fill up for every performance no matter what show was on, just because of the magic words ‘Free Parking.’ Then I could do whatever plays I liked.”

[marlowe1-blog]

"O City of Broken Dreams" (The Stories of John Cheever)

Ok. That's more like it. I think that this is the story that finally grabbed me and made me want to keep reading. Cheever characters are weird. This distinguishes them from the other major white guy writers of the 20th century. Raymond Carver characters are utterly ordinary (probably more ordinary than they should be given the fact that Lish took a goddamn chainsaw to his stories). Salinger characters are self-involved geniuses who kind of like religion but never really let anything change them. John Updike is purposefully trying to write average characters.

But Cheever characters feel more like Sam Shephard characters from when he was writing "realistic" plays like True West where one brother goes from house to house stealing everyone's toaster. Just their toaster.

This is what I'm enjoying about this collection (I actually just read Xmas is a Sad Season for the Poor last night which is about the worst elevator operator possible - more on that in a few days when I catch up) is the way that Cheever's characters are just weird. Like they don't act like real people. He's abandoned realism or at least he's decided to be rather smug about it. Granted, this isn't The Swimmer.

Instead we have a family where the husband is getting a play produced on Broadway. Like he showed his play to some producer who came for a local play and that producer got very excited about it. So very excited that the whole family is going to New York to make it big.

And if you know anything about Broadway or writing or just working on anything creative and trying to get noticed, you know that's not how it works. And yet, this family is living out its dream in a way that cracks them open as if that initial hurdle into the recognition can only lead to more garbage.

So the father wanders New York, breaks contracts, tries to get meetings with the original producers and by the end the woman that he based the play on is suing him for libel (with the help of the guy who was going to produce the play in the first play).

It's absurd. It's wish fulfilment gone bad. It's cruel and funny at the same time.

[megameryl]

Theater Talk 5/30/24

The other half of the songwriting Sherman brothers died over the weekend.

I don't have time to fully express myself at the moment, but I will say this. When I was a child watching Mary Poppins for the zillionth time, I enjoyed the lullaby sound of "Feed the Birds."

Listening to it now as an adult...I understand it.

[celeste444spacey]

Things we can learn from the Upper East Side- A guide to how our fave tv elites deal with fame, success and attention.

So you're famous now, can you handle it?

What better than to learn the art of fame from none other than our favorite teenage dirtbags involved in scandals, betrayals, well drawn out revenges with constant reputation destroying and restoring... our holy grail : Gossip Girl.

If there's one thing we can learn from these horrible rich kids making way more horrible decisions, it's handling attention and fame.

You might argue and say they were a bunch of teens who were downright horrible to each other, but i'd argue they did handle speculation and rumors way better than we would (questionably at times however).

So here's a few things i observed on the show compiled into a guide, just so you can handle fame well too!

1

They did not let the gossip girl blasts get to them.

This is quite frankly the first observation i'd make. They did not give a damn about the blasts gossip girl made (there were instances that would upset them but it wouldn't take over their life), however they did use it to their advantage.

2

Media is your downfall but it is also your biggest weapon.

As much as they didn't pay much heed to Gossip Girl, they'd leverage it to get their narrative across- wrong or not.

This happens in media as well, magazines and entertainment news sites are not only rumour spreaders, they can be effectively used to control your narrative. So you must be strategic about it. This is pretty much what PR teams do. And this is why celebrities spend millions of dollars on these people. They are strategists.

3

People pleasing is impossible. Stop caring what others think- or say

It's lonely at the top, so it should be obvious that not everyone will understand your position or like that you hold it. But it is how it is, so start living for yourself and YOUR purpose rather than caring what other people think of thing you do.

4

Create a brand. You are unique. Trademark your energy.

Serena Van Der Woodsen: it girl, martinis, gold, paparazzi, free spiritedness, VS energy, glitters and sparkles, nyc at night, dream girl

Blair Waldorf: sleepovers, headbands, satin, cartier, henry bendel, bergdorf, louboutins, schemer, macaroons, audrey hepburn

Nate Archibald: guy next door, blue, old money, prince charming, basketball, kindness, dream guy

Chuck Bass: business, scotch, womanizer, fur coats, i'm chuck bass, scandal, strategist, bad boy, private jets, limos, womanizer

Dan Humphrey: writer, the "good" guy, outcast turned insider, nyu, playwright, chinese take out

I don't gotta explain, you know exactly what i mean.

5

Strategy strategy strategy

Everything is strategy, business, academia, entertainment, sports. EVERYTHING. It's not a day on the upper east side without strategy, so even fame needs strategy on the behind. Marketing and creative needs to be well thought out, the way to rack up sales does, even preparing for your mid terms or scoring a goal or even winning an f1 race. Strategy. Is. Everything.

And that concludes my post. Lemme know what you think!

Masterlist here

Celebrity energy series here

[sweatinn-quezonn]

Will Pj and Bobby, or any of the other characters, be in the old man au thingy? Or nah?

Also, Max's kid is just so damn cute! Ik Goofy would love his grandchild sm. Would she also like him too? Or is it kinda the same relationship she has with her dad?

Sorry. I'm already kinda invested in this ahubdjshs

1) yes! i have some wip designs of pj and bobby :) max definitely stayed in touch with the two of them, but they aren’t gonna BE there because they have their own lives to live. here are a few things about them in this au:

- bobby graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and film

- i might make bobby either move to: LA, seattle, or miami

- pj graduated with a bachelor’s in english and marries mocha (she graduated with english and philosophy)

- both pj and mocha become critically acclaimed playwrights in nyc, both winning a tony (for their own separate plays)

other characters such as roxanne, mona, goofy, and sylvia will make a quick appearance

2) goofy absolutely LOVES snoopy, and snoopy loves him, too. i do plan on giving her and max a similar dynamic as max and goofy in the movies (they have a lot of parallels, so expect a lot of callbacks). aka max is going to have a taste of his own medicine

i WILL yap, but i must resist. so take this as a treat :D

[brokehorrorfan]

4K Ultra HD Review: Basket Case

Unlike most "prestigious" organizations dedicated to the arts (I'm looking at you, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), the Museum of Modern Art doesn't ignore the existence of genre fare. Nevertheless, there's something surreal about seeing "This film is from the collections of The Museum of Modern Art" at the start of Basket Case, a sleazy exploitation picture shot on 16mm over the course of a year for under $35,000.

The 1982 film follows Duane Bradley (Kevin VanHentenryck), who carries around his formerly-conjoined twin brother, a deformed, fleshy menace named Belial, in a wicker basket. While Duane intends to get revenge on the medical professionals who performed their unwanted separation surgery, Belial indiscriminately kills anyone who opens the basket like a malevolent jack in the box.

It's clear from the start that some sort of creature is contained within the basket, but writer-director Frank Henenlotter (Frankenhooker, Brain Damage) smartly allows the tension to build before revealing Belial in all his glory at the end of the first act. There's no mistaking it for anything but inanimate rubber (save for a primitive stop-motion sequence), but its blood-curdling screams give it life. Special effects artists Kevin Haney and John Caglione Jr. both won Oscars for Best Makeup — for Driving Miss Daisy and Dick Tracy, respectively — less than a decade removed from Basket Case.

MoMA's 4K restoration of Basket Case's original 16mm AB negative reels arrives on 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) and original uncompressed PCM mono audio via Arrow Video. Importantly, the restoration presents the film in newfound clarity while preserving the '80s NYC grime inherent to the film. The limited edition set comes with reversible artwork, a double-sided fold-out poster, and a booklet with writing on the film by horror historian Michael Gingold and a Basket Case comic strip by Martin Trafford, all housed in a slipcase featuring artwork by Sara Deck.

While no new special features were produced for the 4K, the plethora of existing materials including cover every conceivable aspect of the film. Henenlotter and VanHentenryck's breathless commentary from Arrow's 2017 Blu-ray doubles as a low-budget film school, from reusing sets to dumpster diving for decor. An archival track from Something Weird's 2001 DVD with Henenlotter, producer Edgar Ievins, actress Beverly Bonner, and Basket Case 2 production assistant Scooter McRae repeats most of the insight, but it's fun to hear their rapport.

Interviews are ported over with VanHentenryck, who discusses his cerebral approach to playing the character; Bonner, who wrote and starred in a play examining where her character might be 30 years after Basket Case; Florence and Maryellen Schultz, Henenlotter's identical twin cousins who play nurses in the film and share his unique sense of humor; and legendary film critic and The Last Drive-In host Joe Bob Briggs, whose campaign to host the film's drive-in premiere saved it from being cut by its distributor.

A joke interview with Henenlotter features the filmmaker portrayed by Albert Cadabra, a sideshow performer who edited Henenlotter's Bad Biology, in the nude. The Latvian Connection explores four crucial members of the Basket Case team of Latvian descent: Ievins, associate producer/effects artist Ugis Nigals, casting director/actress Ilze Balodis, and Belial performer Kika Nigals. What’s in the Basket? is a 78-minute documentary produced by Severin Films in 2012 covering the Basket Case franchise with cast and crew.

Three short films are featured: Basket Case 3½, an 8-minute mockumentary from 2017 in which Henenlotter interviews "Duane Bradley" (VanHentenryck) about the events of Basket Case; Slash of the Knife, Henenlotter's 1976 short film that ultimately lead him to make Basket Case, with optional commentary by Henenlotter and playwright Mike Bencivenga and outtakes; and Belial’s Dream, a 2017 stop-motion animated short by Robert Morgan (who just made his feature debut with Stopmotion), accompanied by its own brief making-of featurette.

Other extras include: the MoMA's 2017 restoration premiere introduction and Q&A with Henenlotter, VanHentenryck, Bonner, the Schultz twins, and Ugis Nigals; The Frisson of Fission, a video essay by film historian Travis Crawford exploring the history of conjoined twins and "freaks" in cinema; a 2011 filming location tour with Henenlotter and rapper R.A. The Rugged Man (who co-wrote Bad Biology) explore the filming locations; outtakes; five image galleries (promotional stills, behind the scenes, ephemera, advertisements, home video releases); three trailers; a TV spot; and two radio spots.

Henenlotter didn't set out to make a cult film — in fact, he didn't think anyone would ever see his feature debut — but that's what he accomplished with Basket Case. Shot on location in New York City, the picture doubles as a time capsule of a seedy version of Times Square that no longer exists; one littered with drug dealers, sex workers, and porno theaters. While the sequels would lean more into the comedy, the original film balanced its camp with well-placed shocks.

Basket Case will be released on 4K Ultra HD on April 30 via Arrow Video.

[thisismynyc]

It him…

New York, New York